21.08.2024
Empowering the NHS Workforce Amidst Digital Transformation
Recent efforts to introduce digital systems in the NHS have encountered challenges such as resistance to change, insufficient training, and a lack of user involvement in the design process. While the primary focus of the NHS’s digital transformation has been on implementing new technologies to enhance efficiency and patient care, these issues highlight the need for a more inclusive approach. A crucial aspect that must not be overlooked is the empowerment of the workforce. The success of digital initiatives depends significantly on the active involvement and support of healthcare professionals. Without this engagement, even the most advanced technologies may fall short of their potential.
To ensure that digital transformation meets its objectives, it’s vital to engage healthcare professionals early and often, making them not just recipients of new tools but active participants in their development and deployment.
Here are five ways the NHS is empowering its workforce during digital transformation:
- Involving Staff Early in the Process: Healthcare professionals are engaged from the outset when planning and selecting new digital tools. Their insights help tailor technology to meet real-world needs and foster a sense of ownership.
- Providing Comprehensive Training: All staff receive thorough training on new technologies, including understanding their purpose and benefits, which builds confidence and competence.
- Creating Continuous Feedback Loops: Channels for ongoing feedback are established, gathering input on what’s working and what isn’t, allowing for timely adjustments.
- Promoting a Culture of Innovation: A mindset that embraces change and innovation is encouraged by recognising and rewarding contributions to digital transformation efforts.
- Ensuring Ongoing Support and Development: Continuous support, including refresher courses and help desks, is offered to ensure staff feel supported throughout the technology’s lifecycle.
Empowering the workforce is essential for the success of the NHS’s digital transformation. By actively involving staff and providing the necessary training and support, the NHS can overcome challenges and fully realise the benefits of a digitally transformed healthcare system.
Latest insights
Fail Fast, Serve Better: Why the Public Sector Needs a Hackathon Mindset
The electricity in the room was palpable. You could feel that surge of anticipation and excitement — the moment when your brain starts racing at 100 miles an hour and the ideas begin to spill out. We were only ten minutes into our first ever Keystream Hackathon, and already the ideas were coming so fast…
Who Owns the Roof Over Our Heads? And why it matters
Generation Alpha – the iPad-native, AI-normal, children of Millennials who think global videos, climate chat, and hand sanitiser are just… life. They’re also the least likely generation to ever own their own home. As it stands many Millennial parents will not get to see their children own their own home. That matters. As property ownership…
Pulling the Cord on Tech’s Culture of Silence
In aviation, every crash leads to an investigation. In tech, most failures disappear into silence. Why? After attending several events recently, one theme stood out: transparency, or the lack of it. Having supported digital and transformation leaders for over a decade, I’m struck by how often the same issues resurface. Lessons aren’t learned, and problems…
Tuition Fees, Talent, and Quality: The Real Challenge for UK Universities
The government’s recent announcement allowing universities in England to raise tuition fees in line with inflation has made headlines across the sector. While this move may provide welcome financial relief, the bigger challenge for universities isn’t tuition – it’s people. Universities simply cannot meet quality standards without the right teams in place. IT, digital, and…
Beyond the Tools – Making Digital Transformation Work for the NHS
I’ve seen the NHS’s digital transformation from all angles….as a patient, working on the frontline and in the programme room. I’ve felt the frustration of handwritten notes, siloed systems, and digital tools that promised productivity but rarely delivered. But I’ve also seen the difference when technology truly works, when it empowers rather than overwhelms, when it simplifies rather than complicates, and when it supports…
The Traitors Within: Tackling Hidden Inefficiencies in NHS Waiting List Management
As The Traitors returns to our screens tonight (highly recommend if you haven’t seen it), it’s a good reminder that not every challenge is visible at first glance – especially in healthcare. Just like in the show, NHS teams are working together towards a shared goal, but sometimes unseen forces quietly work against progress. In…
From Perfectly Choreographed Groceries to Well-Orchestrated Public Services: What We Learned from a Leading UK Supermarket
As part of our work exploring how operational design principles translate across sectors, we recently visited one of the UK’s leading supermarket micro-fulfilment centres (MFC). We were curious to see how one of the country’s most complex logistics operations balances automation, efficiency and human input to meet high-volume demand. On the surface, it seems far…
NHS Group Structures: Navigating the Shift
Across the NHS, a clear pattern is emerging: the rise of the group structure. Some trusts were early adopters, but we’re now seeing more organisations coming together, whether by uniting corporate functions or pursuing a full merger. This shift is being driven by real pressures: financial constraints, workforce shortages, duplicated services, and the ongoing drive…
AI, Communities and a Fit-for-Future Public Sector
Navigating a New Vision for Health and Local Services The government’s 10-Year Plan for the NHS lays out a bold vision of a “fit for the future” health service, with three major shifts: care closer to home, digital-first services, and a focus on prevention. It is a plan to reimagine how care is delivered by…
How Higher Education’s Challenges Are Reshaping Tech and Digital Teams
The UK higher education sector is at a crossroads. Once known for stability and long-term thinking, universities are now navigating uncertainty on every front, from squeezed budgets and changing student demographics to rising expectations for digital-first services. As someone who has spent the past six years recruiting into this space, I have seen how these…